The mic is hot and the game is on. You're listening
to News for the Nation podcast by Aces Nation,
where we talk about nutrition, sports performance,
the journey of a student athlete, and more. I'm
Claire. I'm Zach. Time to level up. Welcome back
sports fans. Today we're talking about return
to play protocol, what we're calling the mods
pod, so any modifications that come through training,
the importance of return to play protocols, how
they intermingle with what we do at ACES nations
and how we can provide those types of insights
to coaches from the medical staff and just connect
every working part of the organization together.
So Tiana and I are going to kind of discuss a
lot of these different topics. And I know Tiana
is going to start us off. Yeah. So the last podcast,
Zach and I talked a lot about the connections.
how we see them anyway at aces between parents
coaches and athletes and today we kind of wanted
to bring in the way that we work alongside the
sports med staff as well to make sure that athletes
are getting the benefit of the holistic approach
to performance and making sure that You know
we're doing our best to mitigate injury on the
front end but then if an athlete does happen
to get injured how we work alongside that staff
in order to provide transparency to coaches through
the process and parents and also to get athletes
as healthy as possible and back on the active
roster. So we're going to go over all the different
ways that we approach that today and the ways
that aces. supports staff in those efforts. So
I guess the first thing I want to bring up is
within the app, and this is done probably in
a wide variety of ways, no matter if you're using
some sort of technology, you're putting this
in Google Sheets, or maybe you're just writing
it on paper and the staff is sharing it with
coaches, but In any way you do this, you do want
to have transparency in that return to place
status. So, we approach this in a way where medical
staff have an area of each athlete's profile
or dashboard, as we call them, where they're
able to go in and report on the injury and their
recommendations on the status of that injury
and also the protocol that they're taking to
help You know get that athlete back on the field.
So this is a a report that the staff can see
the coaching staff can see but also we try to
break it down in a little bit of a you know quick
format for coaches to reference where we have
an entire table our return to play status table
that's color coded that gives you a quick indication
of what point in the process that athlete is
so you know we can dive into this a little deeper
and we can talk about how that kind of influences
each status on that chart but basically you have
anywhere from red which is athletes injured and
restricted and then you'll have a kind of a middle
status where they're limited to some degree maybe
limited contact if it's a contact sport or just
limited in some sort of movement within that
sport and then your green is your you know return
to play But also it gives a coach an indication
that they're coming off a recent injury. So this
is something that they still need to be cognizant
of while that athlete gets ready to kind of be
fully involved again. And we always talk about
holistic approaches to training and sports performance.
And so this injury status is no different where
we also include kind of the mental and nutrition
side of these things. So We have documents that
support athletes going through their injured
time and things that they should focus on in
order to help their body repair more quickly.
And then we also have kind of a test for the
mental side to make sure athletes, even if they
have a green status and they should be ready
to return, how they're feeling about that mentally
in order to make sure that there's no recurrence
of injury by that athlete not truly believing
that they trust. that injury being repaired and
being ready to go back to full play. So at this
point, we'll have Zach kind of pop in here and
talk about basically how he works alongside the
sports medicine staff. You know, whether that's
in person, but in college setting or whether
that's, you know, kind of virtually through just
putting based on a status that an athlete would
be in, what recommendations would be that they
could be working on in order to help them return
to play quickly. Yeah. So really important to
work closely and get clarification if you need
it from sports med staff. So at the collegiate
level, typically you get these injury reports
and it has the name, the date that the injury
happened, what their, you know, where the location
is, what their status is from a field or like
a sports perspective and then from a training
perspective with me. And I mean, really you go
through, I know you just listed off colors. I'll
give like abbreviations that are normally there.
Out normally means they're not participating
at all. Sometimes it's like NP for no participation.
Then you'll have like LP for limited participation
with some indications of like what those modifications
should be 80 as tolerated means they're almost
fully back or almost fully cleared I guess to
what they would be or they're pretty close to
that level Before the injury and then FP full
participation. So definitely that the green light
there and they can resume activity as they normally
would have beforehand. One of the things that's
important, I mentioned clarity is to get exactly
what you're going to be able to do or what the
athlete that you're working with is going to
be able to do. So communication is definitely
key there. Whether that's being sent to you immediately
and given as like a... No lower body reference
from sports men, but then you probably know obviously
that tells you what you're gonna be able to do
I really find it helpful if The information comes
along and it's like Let's just say it's there's
an ankle injury on left side, right? I find it
more helpful That it doesn't say no lower body
than if it says you know, right leg as tolerated
with stability as needed, you know, so I know
that I can do some right leg training, like if
you have a leg press or something machine, then
you can do right leg, leg press for that individual
athlete that I'm giving the example for. And
then your upper body training can be almost as
normal, probably not going to be standing for
a lot of stuff. You're probably going to be seated
or whatever else you're using for those different
things. So I find it helpful. to have as much
clarity as yes this injury may be on one side
but you can still work some other things around
that or it's also helpful to get like a an injury
indication or a modification status that says
maybe it says no axial load which means you're
probably not going to have the barbell directly
on your back or you know on your shoulders in
the front so it's like not any load directly
being placed on your spine. And that gives you
an indication that, okay, I can still train the
lower body. I just need to change what exercise
I'm selecting and how the weight is being experienced
by that athlete. So those different things kind
of let you know what's happening. And sometimes
it's going to be, this person can participate
at 50 % of their normal or at the assigned capabilities
of like the group right so in that scenario you
you could either cut reps in half for all the
sets or cut sets in half for all the exercises
obviously if you've got like an odd number it's
hard to cut in half so you probably on the cautious
side do more than half at that point until they've
you know gone a little bit farther in the return
protocol from that or as they're working through
that injury, you know, because sometimes people
are able to kind of work through some injuries
within reason around these recommendations and
these guidelines sent to you by an athletic trainer,
physical therapist, whoever is in sports medicine
is what our department is here. So, yeah, those
are just some kind of insights on clarity as
what I'm experiencing. I do feel that generally
you see a little bit more clarity and kind of
insight for college settings where the sports
med staff understands that the athlete could
be doing things while they're injured and trust
you and your expertise to execute those things
in the weight room for them. But do you notice
a difference with younger athletes, especially
where they, you know, get an injury and they
think, oh, well, that's it for me, I have to
sit out for the rest of the season, or there's
nothing I could be doing in order to get better?
Like, do you do you notice an age difference
there? Or kind of is it whether or not they're
dealing with just a general practitioner doctor
versus sports med doctor? I think that's a good
That's a good topic to talk about because if
you're a medical professional and you're not
you're not sure who's gonna be working with this
person and whether or not they're smart enough
or you know, you don't you don't trust them and
trust their opinion and All professional aspects
you you may say for that ankle person No body
because you have no idea what they're gonna do
or who they're gonna go see right? So you may
want to be on the safe side professionally to
do that I I Would not say that it's only high
school or like not collegiate athletes that Would
be like oh gosh Her my ankle can't can't do anything
lower body, but then trust me. It's it's college
kids, too It just kind of depends on depends
on who that person is what their personality
is You know a lot of people but some athletes
would be like hey, I'm fine. I can do this right
And they'll try to go a little bit beyond what
the recommendation is for that, which good for
those people. It probably helps with their competitive
drive and why they are, or why they're as successful
as they are, or why they are at the level that
they're at at that point. But yeah, I just kind
of get there. But it also could extend the length
of that injury, right? Right, it could. Where
if you're someone who's insisting that you're
good to go, but you're not, I mean, that's the
other end of the... spectrum there too. And I
think that's when we get into more of like psychological
and sociological elements that are happening
at play within the sports environment and like
how people view you what's your perspective on
your self -worth at that point. I think that
that gets into a lot of different areas but yeah
so I mean some people want to pull themselves
completely out because whatever you know this
and that but Man, I think it's just kind of various,
but I can definitely see medical professionals
just telling you not to do anything. That way
there's not a chance of you having an issue and
you're able to return. I think that's from a
like overly cautious professional safety standpoint.
That's just what you're going to do. And how
about the coaching side of that do you see pressure
from coaches on either the sports med staff or
you in terms of how long it takes an athlete
to what they consider be ready to return I Think
more that pressures on sports medicine than I've
ever experienced to get someone back I'm thankful
that most of the time we have baseline numbers
that we can go off of. And so we know roughly,
if someone's within 90%, you know, between that
90 to 100 % of their capabilities beforehand,
that they're okay to be full participation in
practice as long as they've met other medical
criteria or benchmarks, checkpoints along the
way. Right? I mean, obviously, if we're talking
to surgical like post -op, they've got to meet
these different benchmarks before they're able
to participate fully. You know, my career is
like, my part of that is way at the end. When
someone's already gone through, you know, all
the procedures and recovery visits, and I'm like
way down the road, and I'm minimal at best, probably
in the beginning. Probably away away from the
affected limb at that point and then I'm slowly
getting into that point but So if this isn't
new to someone I guess the idea that you know
Say you injured like you're saying before an
ankle the idea that you can train Continue to
train lower body at least on the uninjured side
for the time being and maybe even regular participation
for upper body Are there like very kind of common
modifications that you make in order to accommodate
those athletes in any particular exercise areas?
Yeah, I mean in that in that case in particular
I mentioned the Work you can work the other side.
So let's say it's a left ankle. You can train
your right leg as long as there's stability when
needed so if there's a squad day you can you
can still train single leg squat there. You're
probably going to need something for stability.
If you don't have a leg press, like I mentioned
earlier, where that's really easy to train. I
guess if you had a Smith machine, like obviously
that's built in stability. So you might be able
to just use that. You're just going to keep that
affected limb off the ground. I mean, if you're
in a boot, you're going to be a little safer,
I guess. Then if you're like Wrapped up in bandages
and I don't know if you're I don't know if you're
training at that point if you're wrapped up in
bandages because Well, I mean in my experience
that's like Maybe some type of surgical procedure
that's already happened and you're probably still
on some type of medication If you're still on
a scenario like that, you probably have crutches
or whatnot that that scenario in particular maybe
I'm gonna only be seated upper body for a while
if you're in that case. But yeah, if you're like
in a ankle brace, you're able to kind of walk
around. If you're in a boot where you can walk
around a little bit, you can definitely train.
Honestly, even this morning at the time that
we're recording this podcast, I had somebody
in a boot on crutches, but was able to single
leg squat this morning. Yeah, it can still be
done at that point. That's like different modifications
are gonna happen at different points and I mean
I'll get into an extensive list kind of later
on we get through that but yeah, it's important
that we continue to train the entire body because
the the nervous system gets stimulated and makes
adaptations that can benefit the entire body
when we train like we normally would even though
we're having like a one sided or no one limb
has been affected by injury. I think that's kind
of surprising to people to hear for the first
time and not necessarily something that would
just seem like common sense because Yes, the
fact that you are actually training that limb
itself and affecting those particular muscles
on say the right side if your left is injured
that yeah, we you can make that connection. But
what else is going on? Kind of behind the scenes
of how that training is still benefiting your
entire body is you know, do you want to dive
a little bit more into kind of why that is? Yeah,
I'll bring up my first exposure to this kind
of thinking here. For all the millennials out
there listening to this, my favorite M. Night
Shyamalan movie is Lady in the Water. And in
the movie, there's a guy at the hotel where they're
all living, or a little apartment complex, whatever
it is. And he's only doing bicep curls on one
side. uh and his arm is so much bigger than the
other one but uh so that was my first exposure
to this entire thing but yeah so there's some
there's some research out there about these types
of areas and uh i went in and dug in a little
bit to some research within the last 10 years
about this stuff. So let me start off by saying
it's really important to follow your doctor,
surgeon, physical therapist, or athletic trainer's
recommendations when in some type of return to
play protocol. Get that clarity that you need.
Maybe ask some questions about what you really
do. and how you might be able to benefit or aid
in recovery for that affected limb by continuing
to be physically active in some manner. Aces
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a demo. Let's go! It definitely has benefits
to train uninjured side, okay, and to keep training
even if it's like one arm. versus being able
to do both arms or one leg versus being able
to go both legs. The term that's used in research
is cross -education. It's the term of the transfer
of adaptations to the injured limb when you're
training the uninjured one. Not going to bore
everybody with a bunch of research read. Sometimes
we get into a deep dive of research on some of
these episodes, but just know that... In the
three studies that I looked at, two of them were
upper body studies, and one of them was lower
body. In all the studies, they showed benefit
from doing unilateral training on the uninjured
side, whether that was upper or lower body. The
upper body ones had more metrics because they
were single studies. They definitely showed that
strength was retained. in the injured side after
it was able to be mobile again. So it was immobile
or they were not training that side. One of the
studies they did a non -dominant versus dominant,
both dominant and non -dominant, and then they
have people who are the control not training
at all, right? So like there's obviously some,
there were strength gains seen in both sides
regardless if one of them was being trained or
not. That's kind of amazing actually, do you
know what the time frame was on that? Like how
long that person's injury had them out of that
actual lift exercise? The the one that I looked
at with wrist flexion, they were actually immobilized
and I think it was for like a Few but there's
three times a week for six weeks. So they were
immobilized for six weeks They preserved strength
to an average of negative 2 .4%. So they lost
strength, obviously, but the control group who
didn't do it was like, they lost 20 % of their
strength versus missing 2 % of it. So, I mean,
that's like 10 times the difference, obviously.
Sorry, that was a strength preservation across
all the contractions and the wrist flexors. But
the actual strength of the non -immobilized side,
they got a lot stronger, obviously, by training.
So they were able to preserve a lot of those
qualities in the arm that was in the cast. For
the other one, it was just a training period
that had a bunch of different training groups.
So not necessarily the same as being immobilized.
Showing the same things they were able to preserve
strength in the side that wasn't being trained
by training the other side Yeah, so I mean that
was the upper body ones obviously they were a
little more specific like I said and then the
lower body one was really like a meta analysis
where they looked at a bunch of different research
studies They have four studies that assessed
periodically knee function after ACL reconstruction
and The one study that had significant favorable
results for unilateral training at eight weeks
of the knee function So, I mean there definitely
was some some positive benefits of that They
did mention at the end they needed more research
of it. So I mean Didn't find a ton within the
last ten years of this But obviously from what
I pulled there was two upper body and one lower
body So I think I think there needs to be a little
more lower body research that's done and kind
of shown throughout but yeah so definitely definitely
benefits to continuing to train maybe you're
not gaining strength in that injured side but
maybe you're not starting as far back like obviously
the one I told you about they lost on average
two percent of their strength on the immobilized
side, I mean, that's like almost like, hey, you
didn't miss out on anything. If you lost 2%,
maybe that's, you know, maybe after one week
of training and getting back into it, maybe that's
negligible. Like it's almost like you didn't
lose anything. You're not starting all the way
back over versus like I lost 20 % of that strength
on that side. So I think it's definitely beneficial
to continue to train like that. And like I said,
a lot of these effects are not It's not necessarily
about getting the results locally. Like if you've
got, I don't know, you've got a shoulder issue
or something like that, then you're not gonna,
like your arm's not gonna be as big, right? You're
gonna atrophy and even these research studies
for showing that muscle thickness is gonna decline
in those areas because they're not being trained
locally, but you training your brain to send
these signals, is going to help the entire body
get ready. So that's really where the strength
benefits were preserved was by training at that
stimulus and having your brain still make those
connections to muscle. So it's all neurological
response that really kind of kept the strength
intact. So definitely beneficial. Yeah, that's
super interesting and it ties into what we've
talked about in the past when it comes to central
nervous system training and coordination and
balance and all of the things that are going
on that you may not realize are adaptations that
are happening because it's not the obvious thing
that you'll just, you know, okay, my quads are
getting bigger because I'm squatting. So understanding
that. Just being injured doesn't mean that you
have to go ahead and sit on the bench and that's
all you get to do and watch everyone for months
on end that there is hope of what you can be
doing to still improve especially these kids
were talking about that have that very high competitive
drive and really. I'm looking to do you know
play the next level or whatever that might look
like for them there is. Besides watching film
or studying their sport in some way they can
be doing something physical It just may not be
exactly what they had in mind Yeah, I think a
good point to that is just because you got injured
I mean like unless you're gonna just quit playing
the sport entirely You still have a purpose to
continue to train even if that means you're you're
gonna have some type of surgical procedure Or
you're not you really kind of owe it to yourself
And to your team to continue train to be in a
better position when you come back because obviously
as i just said if you don't do anything you're
definitely gonna lose strength right you're already
gonna lose size because of being immobilized
if that's the case for you but. you definitely
don't want to lose strength because then you're
really starting way back and that's going to
be it's going to make it harder for you to get
back to playing at the level that you're used
to if you're setting yourself so far back by
not training so there are opportunities for you
at that point as you mentioned like studying
film like being smarter about the game or just
kind of learning through others experiences or
talking through scenarios and kind of learning
being better at your sport that way even though
you can't full participation play. But also you
don't want to set yourself back to when you get
into the game You know for the first time that
you're just so far behind It's gonna be even
more frustrating to you at that point. That's
just like I'm not where I was Well, we get that
but but what are you doing to keep yourself as
close to that level as possible? And we can do
as much as we want to mitigate injury in the
long run, but I mean sports are inherently dangerous
and May involve injury so at some point in your
career there's a good chance that you know you
may experience some sort of injury so being prepared
mentally for that type of setback and being able
to return you're not you're not gonna be alone
it's happened to other people and it's. You know
it's just part of the game so i like that approach
of you know being prepared to return in a way
that. Is going to be getting you back to play
as quickly as possible and not causing further
setbacks that aren't necessary I wanted to talk
about I guess I'll go through just some scenarios
really quickly of different modifications that
are typically needed so most of the I Guess injury
report information that I get from sports medicine
is really like, I've summed it into like four
different areas that I typically see. I mentioned
no axial load earlier. There's also the scenario
of like upper body, one side is affected. So
can't hold weight in certain positions, like
can't hold it in the hand, can't hold it on the
shoulder, maybe can't do any of that stuff, at
least on one side. Then there's the ankle thing
that we've talked about, but could also be knee,
could be hip. What we're seeing like you can
only train right leg or left leg, you know, like
you can only train one side of somebody. And
then there's seated upper body people as well.
So those are the typical four areas that I see
there. So just really quickly to just give a
few modifications that I would make for any of
those. squat no axial load I do like a unilateral
Bulgarian split squat some type of lunge you
can do something like ISO some tempo training
you know eccentric ISO any of that type of stuff
you could do more dynamic it just depends on
where your phase is through the year if you can
all hold weight in one side then maybe you just
do one dumbbell if you have some way to set up
some type of belt squat Ish like type of scenario
where the the weight is attached around someone's
waist and then being pulled back down to the
ground either by the Machine or by gravity. That's
fine, too There's also the leg press if you have
something like that always a good option to have
Kind of already talked about right and left leg
for that for bench usually if you can't barbell
Or any specialty bar like that. You typically
go dumbbell And if you have to go one side, you
usually go one side. I mean maybe there's some
type of cable variation that you could use if
you don't necessarily have dumbbells, but I mean
that one's pretty easy. You just kind of stick
to the one side or the other. Deadlift, trap
bar deadlift. I mean that's really, if you got
kettlebells, that could be a different option
for you there to put you in a little bit better
position. Maybe you elevate those things if you've
got some type of if you've got maybe like a lower
back thing that you're you're trying to stay
away from to keep your torso your chest as vertical
as possible as upright as possible that's always
a good thing to do too. I've had some people
have like shoulder issues or wrist issues and
they can only hold it with one side and sometimes
we get away with that for a shorter period of
time by just doing kettlebell deadlift. Weight
would be right in between your feet and I have
them Hold it with their non injured side, if
you will, and then just place their injured limb
or injured side hand on top of the other one.
So the shoulders stay square. Obviously, you're
still holding it with one side, but we get a
little more squared off with the shoulders at
that point. So it's almost like we're holding
it too. Obviously, we're not right and left side.
You can do any type of like strict start. um
like it's starting on an elevated surface with
like a dumbbell kettlebell like deadlift whatever
the case may be for that if you're only on right
or left side maybe it's a alternative like rdl
or whatnot um any of the overhead pressing stuff
kind of gets the same as as bench press you typically
just kind of move into maybe it's machine or
it's fixed some way if you need more stability.
It's single sided if you can't use both sides.
Lunge is kind of the same as squat. You're just
kind of working with what you can hold, what
you can't, whether or not you can have the bar.
Do you need the belt? Do you need to do time
under tension like eccentric, isometric type
of work, that thing. Rose chin -ups, same as
I would say for the upper body work for pressing.
You can use a band. Am I one -sided? Do I need
to use an assisted machine if that's an option
for me? Do I need to... Sometimes you need to
not go vertical, right? Sometimes you can't go
overhead or that causes pain and you need to
just stay with horizontal rowing. That's another
modification that I've had to make for athletes
in the past. So sometimes that's something you
can do. Anytime you like do an RDL and maybe
you can't do it or you've got some type of like
weighted thrust. Can always opt in for like single
sided. If you're only one sided, still use a
dumbbell across the hips. I mean, that's probably
easier to balance than it is a barbell. RDL,
kind of the same thing. Maybe you're staying
one sided. You can hold the weight with both
hands. That's great. If you can't, then you're
finding those other ways to either go maybe it's
a single arm hold. Again, maybe it's a belt type
of attachment or some type of weight. Yeah, some
different options there. bridging, curling, sorry,
with your legs. So you're working on your hamstrings
there. That's an option for you. Med ball throws,
I would kind of say the same as like, you know,
the pressing stuff. Maybe it's single sided.
I've had to do a lot of seated med ball throws
before with athletes who may have like quad,
ankle. hamstring maybe it's a knee issue or something
some type of lower body thing that's keeping
them from being standing and and maybe rotating
as much as we would want to for three -dimensional
like sports and working in the transverse plane
but been able to do some seated med ball throws
to kind of combat that if you're doing Olympic
weightlifting variations like clean snatch and
those things aren't available to you for lower
body purposes you know you're you're finding
Finding out how creative you can be, you know,
maybe it's I've got two bands and I'm trying
to do some squats or some small jumps that are
band resistant for my single leg, you know, it
gives you some stability. You obviously have
to kind of know your athletes and know you're
set up a little bit more for that. There are
single leg jump variations that you could do
if that person's advanced enough to be in that
position. Otherwise, I would say kind of regressed
down to more traditional strength movements like
maybe you're only going to have them do single
leg RDL or a single leg deadlift, single leg
squat, something like that to kind of make up
for that those exposures to strength training
and those stimulus is if they're not used to
or ready for something as dynamic as doing a
single leg jump you know with with an injury
on the other side so kind of have to know your
athlete know your situation for that one but
yeah other than that I guess the last thing I'll
touch off I do a lot of pile -off variations
for core work so I've had people with shoulder
elbow wrist injuries Similar to what I talked
about the kettlebell deadlift If we're doing
a power off version, let's say let's say left
arm left side is the injured side so When the
band is on my right side or to the inside there
I can hold it with my right hand and my left
hand can just be Placed onto my right hand not
taking any of that band resistance just to keep
the shoulder square again And then when I go
to the other side, this is where it becomes tricky.
So everybody try to visualize with me here This
is where the band makes a loop and you put your
right wrist inside of that loop so it's on the
back side of your right wrist. Again left arm
is injured so now we just keep our right hand
as the one that's experiencing the weight. Left
hand is just placed on the right hand to keep
the shoulder square but it is not experiencing
or holding any of that resistance at that point.
Then we just do any of our variations but most
of the time when we're having to do that it usually
holds. presses we do some lateral steps while
holding that pile off hold position So I don't
know long -winded response there. That's that's
kind of a lot of stuff and variations But definitely
happy to help anybody with any modifications
that feel like they need it if you if you reach
out to us for sure But yeah, that's really helpful
in terms of giving coaches two ideas of of ways
to work around these injuries and support the
performance staff in allowing them to continue
training with those types of modifications. And
like you said, if you aren't sure what some of
those exercises even are, I'm sure there's plenty
of examples on YouTube. We have a channel on
YouTube as well, so you can go type those exercises
in and get an idea of what Zach was touching
on there. And that's a lot about The physical
side of the return to play and earlier we touched
on a little bit of the mental side of that and
I even think that the mental side breaks down
a couple ways as well you've got the. The kind
of mental side that relates to mood so you know
if you see injured athletes a lot of times they're
probably kind of frustrated. or maybe upset or
depressed or depending on the extent of that
injury, how much time it might take them to come
back that, you know, the guesswork around kind
of when they think they might be able to get
back that that takes quite a bit of grit to be
able to withstand that type of upset and work
through that. So there are things that we provide
for our athletes. in order to understand how
to mentally handle some of these situations and
be resilient athletes. But there's also the mental
side of just trusting your body is ready to return
to play. And that's a big one that we share with
coaches because we think this is a tool that's
not used as much as it could be. And it gives
a good indication because this test has a correlation,
you know, has found a correlation between Feeling
mentally ready in your body to return to play
versus just the medical staff physically clearing
you and saying, okay, this athlete is in our
estimation is ready. That athlete has to believe
that they're ready in order for that injury to
not recur. I'm not saying that's like 100 % correlation
here, but. they did find that depending on the
answers that students or athletes, student athletes,
whatever you want to call them, gave on this
particular questionnaire, there was a high correlation
between a high score and feeling like they're
ready to return and that being a good indication
that they are really good to go and a score that
indicated that they may have some doubts within
themselves about their ability, say it's a ACL
injury. And they're told that they're cleared,
their ACLs healed, repaired, and they feel like
it's still not where they personally want it
to be, to be able to play and give 100 % effort
that can re -injure. So we provide, it's called
the Tampa Scale of Kinesophobia, and it's a questionnaire.
The athlete will fill it out. They won't see
the results of that questionnaire, but That questionnaire
will have a total score associated with the way
that they answered each question. And then that
score would go to the sports med staff or the
coaches just as an additional indicator as to
how the athlete feels about themselves personally
and being ready to be back on the field. So I
think that's just a pretty cool and unique tool
to be able to use in order to go alongside of
all of the recommendations. Of course, as Zach
mentioned before, you should follow doctor and
sports med staff recommendations based on. you
know, what your status is. But this is just another
way to get some insight into those types of things
I think is a cool feature for coaches and important
to feel like, for athletes to feel like they're
fully supported and for coaches to feel like
they're doing everything they can to make sure
that that athlete is really healthy and ready
to go. Yeah. And I think it's a good concept
that flows, not just, let me explain it this
way. So, The doctor, you've met all the benchmarks,
right? They know that by the book, right, you're
able to physically do these types of things,
right? However, if you don't feel as confident,
right, you're not going to do them in the same
way. And that may put you not where those benchmarks
are. Right. So two different examples here is
let's say we're lifting a certain weight. And
my goal for this exercise is for it to translate
into rate of force development per power. And
I know that you can physically lift this because
you've already hit the benchmark of doing this
movement before. So let's say it's like 70 %
of your max. And I've seen you do your max. So
I know you've done that before. You've marked
it off. You're definitely able to do this. mentally,
if you're not in the right space to have the
intent behind it. Now, I'm not saying that these
are like intent in this case is the same as the
other one, but just for visualization or just
for an understanding, if you don't lift that
weight as fast, you're not gonna get power out
of it. That type of adaptation, you're not gonna
get a power adaptation out of it. You lift it
really slow, you're gonna get more of a... Let's
say strength, right? You lifted a certain speed.
It's only it's not moving as fast as possible.
You're not getting the adaptation out of it.
Right. So your your capabilities are not the
same. So it's not happening because your intent's
not there. Right. Like mentally, you are not
prepared to do the task that's being asked. Right.
Another one is like sports specific. You've been
in practice before. We've seen you kick a ball.
I know you can kick a ball. You can move your
foot to the ball, strike it and it goes somewhere
and you're not, you don't get injured at that
point, right? We know you can do it. We've seen
you, you know, do PK practice in there. I've
seen you pass. I know you can do it at all levels,
right? You get into the game, you have an opportunity
to score. If you don't hit the ball hard enough,
it's not gonna go, it's not gonna get past the
keeper, right? If you don't hit it at the right
spot, right? If you don't execute the task, with
full intent, it's not gonna be there. I mean,
same way you get to this part, you may not feel
as confident, but maybe you don't know it at
that point because it's just, you're not exposed
to it, you're not aware of it. In the last one,
the last two examples I gave you, there's an
outward response that tells you whether or not
you're ready to do it, right? So I think it is
important to have that information. to take those
things so coaches know so you're aware of like
maybe something's you know still not right for
me it it can give you that outward response or
i guess that external response to know okay maybe
there's some stuff that i need to to continue
to work on here um maybe it's not physically
maybe it's in other areas but yeah it's definitely
a good Tool to have and it doesn't take very
long to use and obviously we don't know the scoring
for you and all of this Analysis for you to be
able to once they've done it here you go now
you can have a conversation type of piece with
With your parents if you're the athlete with
the athlete if you're the parents or the coach
or you know Whatever in the environment that
we've talked about already To have so it's definitely
a good tool to have that not many people are
taking advantage of yeah and of course utilizing
all of the things that lead to a proper recovery
not getting injured in the first place is where
we should start for sure, but if you do find
yourself in a situation where you're injured
whether that's a more serious injury or maybe
a minor one that's going to take you out for
a shorter period of time. Either way, utilizing
a bit of all of this in all these different areas,
whether it's the mental, the nutrition or the
physical, all of this is going to lead to more
transparency with coaches, sports med staff,
and also just a more holistic, better recovery
for your athletes. And hopefully that means a
quicker return to play. Yeah, definitely. So
I mean, I hope everyone can take this information
in and really kind of apply it in ways that they
need to or feel like they've got enough to start
to ask more questions to get a better hold of
their scenario because as Tiana has mentioned
with the app, I mean, we definitely have a lot
of resources inside of that to help you stay
away from getting maybe... from maybe getting
injured right or delaying that process or mitigating
it you know reducing the risk there but definitely
to help you in that return to play if that's
the scenario that you're in when you when you
come to us so i mean we definitely have the resources
to help organizations or uh individual athletes
themselves nice well i think that covers it today
for uh injury and We hope you get out there and
play and don't get injured. We've got some really
fun stuff coming up here in the next few weeks,
few months. So stay tuned and we'll see you next
time.